Notes

Canada has a far higher immigration rate and a more educated immigrant stream than
the United States. The two countries also have very different immigration policies. Canada
primarily admits immigrants based on employment-related qualifications, while the United
States primarily admits immigrants based on family ties. Concerns have arisen in both countries
regarding immigration policy. In Canada, policymakers are concerned with immigrants’ labor
market integration and whether the long-standing point system can meet changing labor force
needs. In the United States, policymakers worry that immigrant inflows are predominately lowskilled
and unauthorized while caps on high-skilled, work-based immigration are too low.
Canada has made many changes in recent years to address its concerns, whereas the United
States has made few changes in recent decades to policies governing legal immigration.
Canada’s policy changes may serve as models for the United States as it seeks to encourage more
employment-based immigration and as economically-depressed regions push for programs that
would enable them to attract immigrants as an economic stimulus.

 In the United States, about two-thirds of permanent residents are admitted because they
are closely related to a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident. Less than 15 percent of
permanent residents, including accompanying dependents, are admitted on the basis of
employment.
 In Canada, more than 60 percent of permanent residents are admitted via the economic
class, most of them via the point-based system. Only one-quarter of permanent residents
are admitted based on family ties.
 Although the proportions by class have changed little in Canada in recent years, the
categories within the economic class through which permanent residents enter have
changed. As discussed below, the share of admissions through the point-based system
(the Federal Skilled Worker Program) has fallen as the shares through Provincial
Nominee Programs and the Canadian Experience Class have risen.